There are plenty of quality films screening out of town this week as well: Manchester by the Sea, Hidden Figures at the Astor in Liverpool, and Arrival at King’s Theatre in Annapolis Royal. Lion is playing the Astor on Wednesday and Fundy Cinema in Wolfville on Sunday.

The First Features screening series at the Dal Art Gallery continues this week with the debut feature by a director who embodies cinema itself—Federico Fellini’s The White Sheik, co-written with co-luminary Michelangelo Antonioni, no less. There hasn’t been a DVD release of this one since the now-out-of-print 2003 Criterion—used copies of which are going for as much as US$79 on Amazon—so this free screening is pretty much the deal of the month.

One of the most insightful film reviews I’ve read in a while is this take on Martin Scorsese’s Silence by Toronto critic Adam Nayman. On the topic of whether the film constitutes cultural ammo for the right wing, he writes: “The idea of holding a film set in the 17th century accountable to present-tense attitudes is as small-minded as it gets—the rich irony being that the themes Scorsese is getting at here do in fact very much apply to the here and now.” Paramount has added hundreds more screens this past weekend (though not in Halifax, where it is exclusively at Scotiabank Theatre in Bayers Lake), but box office receipts continue to fall, so I’d encourage you to get out and see it on the big screen while you still can.

It has also been playing this past weekend at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool, which venerable institution has added a series of upcoming weekend engagements for currently critically-acclaimed releases: Manchester by the Sea, Hidden Figures, La La Land. Fundy Cinema in Wolfville has Cameraperson on Wednesday and The Edge of Seventeen this Sunday.

“Beautiful, unsettling, and one of the finest religious movies ever made“—Silence, Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating adaptation of the Shūsaku Endō novel, in its physical portrayal of 17th-century Japan is also of the most meticulous reconstructions of a historic period and place that I have seen in years. It carries my highest recommendation. As of this post it is playing only at Scotiabank Theatre in Bayers Lake.

For the winter & spring edition of its Wednesday free screenings series, the Dal Art Gallery has chosen an excellent theme—First Features. It kicks off this week with arguably the greatest-ever directorial debut, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane.

Also this Wednesday the Central Library continues its series of screenings of Stanley Kubrick films with The Shining, introduced by Mark Palermo.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the latest feature in the Cineplex Classic Films series, a film that continues to be Audrey Hepburn’s most identifiable role, but which is also features a toxically racist caricature as portrayed by the late Mickey Rooney. Cineplex has also brought back Moonlight to Halifax, at the Scotiabank Theatre in Bayers Lake.

Out of town, the Astor Theatre in Liverpool wraps up a multi-day engagement of Moonlight on Monday, and then brings in The Edge of Seventeen for a couple of Wednesday screenings. Fundy Cinema in Wolfville has Arrival on Wednesday and The Violin Teacher on Sunday.

Incidentally, the Johnson-lensed Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ acclaimed 2014 doc about Edward Snowden, was added to Netflix Canada on Christmas Day. Also, if you missed the Oxford run of Moonlight, which just picked up the Golden Globe for best dramatic film, Liverpool’s Astor is giving you another chance to see it this weekend (it’s playing this Friday through Monday).

This Wednesday the Central Library continues its series of screenings of Stanley Kubrick films with arguably the finest film ever made about World War I: Paths of Glory, introduced by the inimitable Carsten Knox.

I finally pushed past my feelings about Casey Affleck’s 2010 sexual harassment case and went to see Manchester by the Sea, which indeed is centred on a top-tier performance by Affleck. But the real star of the film for me is the screenplay by under-appreciated genius Kenneth Lonergan, whose understated direction allows his script to shine. The film is still pulling in sizeable audiences at the Oxford, while the other buzz film of this season, La La Land, is unfortunately only playing the Scotiabank Theatre out at Bayers Lake. Let me assure you that it is worth the pilgrimage.

Incidentally, the Johnson-lensed Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ acclaimed 2014 doc about Edward Snowden, was added to Netflix Canada on Christmas Day. Also, if you missed 2016’s best film—I of course mean Moonlight—when it played at the Oxford, Liverpool’s Astor is giving you another chance to see it this weekend (it’s playing this Friday through Monday). Update: due to the Astor’s projector issues, this weekend’s Moonlight screenings have been moved to January 13-16.

This Wednesday the Central Library kicks off a series of screenings of Stanley Kubrick films with the enduring, standard-setting sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, introduced by the always engaging Kendra Barnes.

Cineplex Park Lane this week continues with screenings of The Sound of Music (the restored edition of which looks fantastic on the big screen) and the batshit crazy 1972 disaster filmThe Poseidon Adventure, which has had an obsessive cult around it for decades now.

Fundy Cinema in Wolfville starts up again this Sunday with Last Cab to Darwin. “Smartly directed by Jeremy Sims, this sweet-hearted film mostly manages to avoid triteness even as it casually packs an emotional punch.” says Daniel Gold in the NY Times.

I finally pushed past my feelings about Casey Affleck’s 2010 sexual harassment case and went to see Manchester by the Sea, which indeed is centred on a top-tier performance by Affleck. But the real star of the film for me is the screenplay by under-appreciated genius Kenneth Lonergan, whose understated direction allows his script to shine. The film is still pulling in sizeable audiences at the Oxford, while the other buzz film of this season, La La Land, is unfortunately only playing the Scotiabank Theatre out at Bayers Lake. Let me assure you that it is worth the pilgrimage.